Family stories and research stories that tell the tale of my personal research. If you have a similar family line or want to know more. Please contact me!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Early Pope Ancestors

You will never find one of my ancestors listed on the Ellis
Island records or probably any immigrant records past 1810. From what I have been able to discover, most
of my ancestors arrived much earlier with a large group arriving in the 1700’s
and many arrived much earlier including the group that arrived on the Mayflower
and shortly thereafter. One of these
couples both arrived with their families shortly after the Mayflower’s arrival
in 1620 and were my 8th great grandparents

.

Thomas Pope was born about 1608 in England – as far as I
know, his parents are unknown. He
arrived in America around 1632 and married Ann Fallowell in 1637 in Plymouth
Co., MA and after her death married Sarah Jenney on 19 May 1646 in Dartmouth,
Bristol Co., MA. Thomas first appears on
the 1633 tax list and is listed as a cooper by occupation. He was chosen as a Constable in Plymouth in
1645 and a surveyor of highways in 1651 and 1652. Thomas owned several lots of land including
Plymouth and Dartmouth. He died before
Aug 1683 when his estate is inventoried.
Thomas would be counted as one of the more prominent men of the
colony.

Sarah Jenney, Thomas Pope’s second wife, was born in July
1623 on the “Little James” while crossing the ocean to her parents, John Jenney
and Sarah Carey. I have heard John
Jenney described as a cooper and as a brewer.
However, he was most known as a miller and built a mill in 1636 that
remained in continuous operation until it was destroyed by a fire in 1847. The Jenney Grist mill was a center for
commerce because John Jenney would usually trade goods and services for the
milling of corn, wheat, and rye flours. When
Thomas Pope and Sarah Jenney married in 1646 it was after the death of her
father who died in 1644. They had 7
children. I am descended from both their
oldest son, Seth, and their youngest son, Isaac. Seth’s son, Elnathan married Isaac’s daughter
Margaret Pope.

While Thomas Pope and Sarah Jenney were probably considered
to be a fairly successful family in the colony, they experienced one of the
worst tragedies that any family could face.
Susannah Pope and her husband Jacob Mitchell and her younger brother,
John were killed by King Phillip’s warriors as they were fleeing to the
Dartmouth garrison in July 1675. If you have
never heard of “King Philip’s War” you can look at http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/enquirer/king_philip.htm
- King Philip aka Metacomet was the Chief of the Wampanoags who led a war
against the Plymouth colony villages. The
whole situation was a disaster for both the Puritans and the Wampanoags.